The Ministry of National Defense on Tuesday announced that four members of the PKK terrorist group, including Yusuf Kalkan, who was on a most wanted list, were eliminated in an aerial operation in Iraq’s north.
The operation took place in the Operation Claw zone, an area encompassing northern Iraq where the terrorists, mostly senior leaders of the PKK, are hiding out. The ministry also shared a video of fighter jets and unmanned aerial vehicles taking off from a military base and aerial footage showing the moment of the airstrike.
Kalkan, also known as Sevkan Çele, was wanted on charges of membership in a terrorist group and running a terrorist group.
Türkiye has, over the past 25 years, operated several dozen military outposts in northern Iraq in its war against the PKK and has been conducting airstrikes as part of “Claw” operations since 2022 to demolish terrorist lairs and prevent the formation of a terror corridor along its borders.
Last week, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan renewed Türkiye’s pledge to eradicate the PKK as he answered a question on an all-out summer offensive in Iraq he had hinted at earlier.
"They are going to pay the price. Counterterrorism is not a simple matter of numbers, and you cannot be sure about it. But our fight will continue to the very end. Their end is near. We will end this issue. We are retaliating and they are desperate, seeking support. Yet, they will fail. Our soldiers, police and intelligence are in the field and breathing down their necks. Those caves cannot protect them," he said, referring to the hideouts of PKK leadership.
